Never play with fire; it could ruin your life and someone else you don’t even know. In the novel The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater, a true story novel focusing on themes of homophobia and arson. A 16 year old boy named Richard, lit an agender’s skirt on fire. The reasoning behind his actions was because he didn’t agree with transgenders, saying: “I don’t have any problem with somebody if they like men. But what if you do too much? Nobody cares, really”(Slator 140). Although, he isn’t the kid everyone makes him out to be. Richard, pre-incident, starts out as a hard-working, kind hearted but immature teenage boy, but, with his cousin's influence, he is portrayed as a man full of hate and considered cruel; leading into 5 years of juvenile prison. If you don’t know someone, you can’t make an impression on someone. …show more content…
Withholding this information, it means that people understand he was kind and wouldn’t be able to understand how the media says he was cruel. Another great quality Richard had was hard-working, he was able to pull himself out of a bad situation and regain focus on his future. We are told by his internship leader that he stood out, how: “Richard did an amazing job during his internship” (97). Understanding this, tells the reader that from an outside perspective, he can do things. However, knowing he is hard-working, he also has some bad qualities. Richard was not doing well in school, in the chapter Miss Kaprice tells us: “His grades are poor, his attendance spotty” (67). Finally, this makes us understand that no matter how the media portrays Richard, he will still be the same guy he always was no matter the crime. If you did something wrong, would you want the media to find